Content Marketing & Quality Content – Google Now Demands It

When it comes to content marketing, quality, nothing will make folks stand up and take action like Google mandating it! And that is what seems to have happened, quietly, without fanfare. Google is rolling out a new algorithm and like many in the past, has been pretty quiet about it. Like all changes to Google’s algorithm, this one is being noticed by content managers and site owners who watch their SERP rankings.

In the world of content marketing, Google ranking and the like, site and content owners are quick to notice just the slightest uptick or downtick in traffic. Earlier this month, site owners began noticing Google ranking changes. Some have been slightly up and some slightly down. A small minority have disappeared completely and conversely, a few have shot to the top of search ranking. Like all algorithm updates Google roll out, there will be a period of settling that happens over the next few months. During that time, site ranking will be volatile moving up and down.

According to Search Engine Land, “while no spam-related update had happened, there were changes to its core ranking algorithm in terms of how it processes quality signals.” Quality is subjective but most likely, it comes down to rich, quality content. Google has been telling folks for years, via Webmaster Tools and articles, that content should be natural, robust and of the highest quality. It seems now, Google is going to give or take away “credit” for that content in deterring how a page should rank in their search engine.

Algorithm Update Specifics

Google has not given any specifics about the update, as they rarely do. Google has been pretty clear in the past that ranking is a complex algorithm that takes in may factors. Page quality is simply one of those factors. This update may simply give a little more weight to quality. Many of the sites most impacted seem to be informational type sites or “hot-to” sites that give a lot of information, like Hubpages.com. However, in that same category, some sites saw an increase in rank.

The science behind algorithms is complex and ever changing. However, one thing has remained the same – quality, robust and natural content will always do well. Just another example on why cheating the system rarely works.